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66 comments on"A New Playmate -- Halloween 2008 (Halloween)"

I would love your version of "If the Broom Fits Ride It!" it would make a perfect wallpaper for my computers... Broom, Witches Hat, Black Cat?

Glenis

"A New Playmate"

November 6, 2008

This is just awesome. Have just become a member today, after looking at your site for a little while now. Being a pensioner we have to save for a little while for these absolutely awesome extras.

Take it easy.

Regards,

Glenis

scigirl

"Love It!"

October 31, 2008

Halloween is fun and this pic is great fun! The cats look wonderful and the Oogie-Boogie face on the pumpkin is perfect!

Marco

"Very very SpoooKy"

October 30, 2008

Very Nice wallpaper

Jason S.

"'Ween '08 ..."

October 30, 2008

A+++!!! 10+++!!! How ANYONE could bang on this image is insane. I will stop here ... I am actually annoyed ...

JRS

Turiya

"Lovin' it"

October 30, 2008

I love this image, and the fact that you're doing Widescreen multimon images.... I'm running, um, 4 wide screen monitors at work and would love to see some quad-screen resolutions.

Keep up the awesome work!

Randall

"Halloween 2008"

October 27, 2008

I really like the cats. I think they are a nice touch. Of course, I'm biased, because I have a black cat! Anyway, another good job!

Randall

Mr. Man

"Cats?"

October 26, 2008

The pumkin pic is great! However, I feel the cats ruin the tone. The cats look a little too fake.

Jonathan

"Nice... but"

October 26, 2008

I'll have to agree with a few people here that this one looks a little cartoonish. Nonetheless, it still earned a place on my desktop. :)

DaveL

"Dual screen split"

October 24, 2008

Hey Ryan,

Just a quick note to tell you that the split for the dual screen (at least the 2560X1024) runs through the black cat on the left of the Jack and looks odd... Not whining or anything, I will just go back to the single screen version...

Thanks!

-Dave

Jeremy

"Nice Job"

October 24, 2008

You should do more holiday themes, its fun and some times some really cool cosmic bg just gets boring after a while..

Vaul

"Happy Halloween"

October 23, 2008

I've liked your other works lately, but this one is a bit to cartoonish for me. The pumpkin looks more like melted plastic and the light inside is too bright. If it was meant to look like a decaying pumpkin, then it may have worked better for me if the inside wasn't so bright and you could see some of the interior messyness and shadows through the holes.

Cheers, Vaul.

ojonasar

"Distortion"

October 23, 2008

Very nice - it's got a sort of a slight melted look to it which looks just great!

As for the distortion, it occurs in ray-tracers for the same reasons it occurs in real life - anyone with a very wide-angle lens will have seen this sort of thing. The ray-tracer is trying to imitate reality, with its optics an perspective effects.

If I face a long wall and take multiple photographs with the intent to turn them into a panorama, the result is a wall that visually seems to curve - it starts small on the left, grows in height as it gets closer and then shrinks again as it goes to the right - which in reality, it visually does. And so it should - the further to the left or right you look, the further away the wall is and therefore the smaller it appears, therefore the wall must appear to curve.

Normally, when we look unaided with our own eyes (and normal field of view), this effect is so slight as to be unnoticable. The brain also corrects some of this also - I remember a long time ago when I was around 11-12 and had not long been wearing glasses, a trip to the optician for a new pair of glasses, for several minutes, left the room looking all warped and distorted (until my brain compensated.)

Sly V.

"Big Praise"

October 22, 2008

I enjoy the pic. I must admit to prefering some of your other Holloween works but this definately delivers and is now displayed well on my desktop. Hope your recovery is going according to plan and everything is going well.

Tersha

"Mrrrrrraow"

October 22, 2008

I absolutely adore the cats. Wouldn't mind seeing a black cat-themed Halloween image some day. I'm unfamiliar with the 'cooliris' that other comments have referenced, but I can say that your recent site upgrades have made it the easiest image-focused site to navigate on the web. Finding an individual image has become trivial. Keep up the awesome work, and take care of yourself so your fans don't have to kick your butt.

Rezox

"Love it but hate cats"

October 22, 2008

Would you mind making a version without the cats?

I love the jack o latern tho.

brailsmt

"Barrel Distortion"

October 22, 2008

I've written a ray tracer (very amatuerish) of my own and the barrel distortion is due to the math involved as you get to more extreme angles of a render. If you change the distance of the camera from the screen than the distortion lessens. I'm sure there are ways around it programmatically, but I know I fiddled with it for a few weeks and never figured how to fix it completely. I think it has to do with the fact that in real life a camera lens is a 3D semi-sphere, but in ray tracers the lens is a pin point and because of this approximation the distortion is exaggerated. I'm no expert on the rendering engines behind Vue and Lightwave, though so take this all with a grain of salt.

Kate

"Meh"

October 22, 2008

I imagine some of this is the rendering, etc. but it looks... like a cartoon. I love the idea of the pumpkin having a more defined face, and the cats crawling all over him, but this one just doesn't really look very polished. I think I like last year's (? maybe? I'd have to go look it up but it's the eyes peering out of indistinct shapes one) Halloween image better.

Maybe this software just does better with landscapes and abstract, because I feel this way about a lot of your images with people in them, etc.

Please don't misunderstand - I keep buying memberships because I LOVELOVELOVE your work, so there's no chance of defection here!

Phillip D

"the black cats and pumkin"

October 22, 2008

Been a little while since I was on your site, first of all, I am glad the surgery went well whatever it is and am happy you are doing okay...

The image is great.Only thing I would say that needs improved on is the pumkin...for the pumkin's wall is too thin, but maybe you intended to have it that way and I am not famiiar with Zbrush.

Oh boy, I love those CATS... where did you get those? Or was it something you made entirely yourself? What impresses me about the cats is that they are so real looking.

Happy halloween to you and your family...Phillip

Asterion

"Thanks for fixing the zune version"

October 22, 2008

Thank you very much for fixing the zune version Ryan! Now that's my my wallpaper both on desktops and phone :)

smharris

"A New Playmate"

October 22, 2008

Ryan, I love it. The pumpkin looks like it is full to bursting with yummy marshmallow cream. I also agree with the person who asked for more cats in your images. I hope you recover quickly.

smw

"Fantastic!"

October 22, 2008

Ryan - I wait all year for your Halloween images and you've definitely delivered! A wonderful new piece that I'm proud to display on my desktop and phone! The pumpkin is perfect. I'm actively showing off this wallpaper to everyone that's unfortunate enough to walk past my monitor during normal business hours, being a bit of a Halloween freak myself. >-D

Thanks, and great job! :D

shaggy

":)"

October 22, 2008

Ryan!

(Especially) Considering your being in a medical condition:

THANK YOU

I'm so glad I started supporting Digital Blasphemy and you :-)

-Tim 'Shaggy' Bielawa

Merlinus

"Change to Animated?"

October 21, 2008

This might be a good candidate to convert into an animated background for Dreamscene. Have fire flaring up out of the eyes, nose, and corners of the mouth for a cool effect... Just an idea...

Ryan

"Stretched Cat"

October 21, 2008

That happens on all of the multi-screen renders. Objects at the edges of the frame are stretched. It's called Barrel Distortion and, while physical cameras exhibit it at extreme wide-angles, I don't know why Vue (and Lightwave) feel they need to simulate it.

The short answer: It's the render and there isn't much I can do about it.

Braden

"Dual Wide seems stretched?"

October 21, 2008

I'm running a pair of WUXGA (1920x1200) screens, and the cat on the left of the image seems stretched. Maybe this is just how its head was rendered though? The eyes seem very set apart in comparison to the others and its body looks a bit too long.

I have my wallpaper set to "tile" mode so it's not the OS doing it.

Walo

" psp version"

October 21, 2008

I have white stripes at the top and bottom of the image.

Walo

"Lol"

October 21, 2008

Inspiration do come in strange ways lol. nice pic. I hope you get better soon Ryan.

Versageek

"Moar Kitties Please! "

October 21, 2008

I love the eyes on the kitty cats.. you should put kitties in your images more often :)

I love your images, the folks at work stare in awe at my desktop every time change to a new digitalblasphemy image.

Hope you are feeling better!

Eyal

"Better late than never"

October 21, 2008

Sorry, missed the fact that you went through surgery. Glad to hear it went well.

Feel well.

Doug

"Nice Work! One of Your Best Holiday Designs!"

October 21, 2008

Thank you!

Asterion

"Great job! Just some problems with 240x320"

October 21, 2008

A great job Ryan! I like the introduction of black cats near the pumpkin. I'd like to see something on the wall but it's a nice image!

I just have a problem with the 240x320 resolution: the left and right borders are white stripes and look ugly on my phone... but the image looks great on my desktop!

Ryan

"Tril"

October 20, 2008

I thought he was rather jolly looking (in a sinister way of course). I'd be interested to know what changes you would make.

Tril

"Cats, squee!"

October 20, 2008

I *love* the cats, but I won't be putting this on my desktop--that jack-o-lantern is just a little too nasty for my tastes!

Any chance of developing a version with a less malign jack-o-lantern?

Mangoman

"Smilin' Jack 'n Cats"

October 20, 2008

I like it! It's easy to look at, and festive, lending a happy air to the time of year. Well done!

cajagger

"Trick or Treat"

October 20, 2008

I like this one. It's much more on the mellow side of Halloween. This looks like it was a fun and relaxing piece to create, especially after surgery. Hope the recovery is going well!

Adam

"Meh..."

October 20, 2008

As much of a fan as I am, regularly changing my desktop to your new work, I must say, this one didn't make the cut.

There's something about the look of the pumpkin and the look of the cats that make it look way too cartoon-ish.

Don't get me wrong, Ryan, it's alright, but not great.

Mirage

"Correction to my previous comment..."

October 20, 2008

I just thought I would point out, I'm one of those that commented on the cats appearing perhaps too dark. When I first saw this wallpaper it was on my work computer, I've now just put it on my iMac at home and while the cats are still on the slightly darker side, they are more visible than they were at work. So those of you having a hard time seeing the cats, it may just be a case of adjusting your monitor settings.

Again, just thought I would point that out :)

DaveL

"Another Great Job !"

October 20, 2008

Hey Ryan,

I agree with the sentiments others have expressed about being torn between congratulating you on another great holiday themed background and you not listening to the orders of your Doc :) I guess that I will leave it at telling you that this is maybe my favorite Halloween background (love that smile on the pumpkin :) and hoping that Jessie will make you toe the line on your health...

Get well soon !!!

-Dave

LauraS

"A New Playmate"

October 20, 2008

My first thought when I saw this was "Oh, how Cool!" My second thought was to mentally scold you for going around doctor's orders. But I suppose that as long as you are still doing well I can forgive you. Just behave yourself until you are completely healed. Great wallpaper; the pumpkin is awesome and I love the cats especially since we haven't seen animals much in your artwork lately (except the shadowy ones in "Pride" and "Lord of the Forest").

Nate F

"Thoughts..."

October 20, 2008

I like it,

but I feel that the pumpkin has too much shape like a face not a pumpkin,

i do however enjoy the fact that there is still almost two weeks to enjoy it before Halloween

Colin

"Great--very seasonal"

October 20, 2008

hope you feel better. thanks for making this for us while you are in pain; we should be honored.

Lily L

"Awsome!"

October 20, 2008

Ryan,

I love this wallpaper! You continue to create some awesome work! May you make a quick recovery.

Thanks again!

Corin

"Halloween 2008"

October 20, 2008

As always, an excellent image and welcome addition to my desktop. I particularly like this one though. You are my favorite artist, so I hope you feel better soon and continue to stay better.

Geoff

"Wonderful!"

October 20, 2008

Another wonderful image! Only suggestion I have is that the cats seem a little too dark and the light from the eyes and mouth seems a little too bright. I think a little more texture or less light would be awesome. I don't know if you can do it, but can you make the light come from a candle or other light source inside the pumpkin? That would be REALLY awesome!

Pete

"A New Playmate"

October 20, 2008

LOVE IT!

keller421

"Get Well Soon"

October 20, 2008

Ryan,

Glad to hear all went well and you have some level of comfort over the last time this happened. Hang in there and get well soon so that you can continue to dazzle us with your creations.

Regards,

Brandon

raw_dog67

"A New Playmate"

October 20, 2008

My kids love it!! I prefer the more ghoulish themed works, but this is the first year my Wife has let me put your Halloween wall on the kids' homework station.

Alvaro

"240x320 version"

October 20, 2008

Hi, I'm glad you're feeling better. I like you new image very much, but there seems to be a problem with the so-called Zune version, it has a white border on both sides.

Rokhed

"pumpkin"

October 20, 2008

The cats in the pic seem to be a little dark. Love the evil look of the pumpkin though. Maybe something like a misty moon and a dead tree forest in the back would bring out the cats more.

Dan

"Wow!"

October 20, 2008

This is one of your best Halloween images! I really like the detail in the pumpkin, and the cats are a great touch! It's great to see your recent surgery hasn't dampened your mood to create a timely themed wallpaper. This just went on my desktop and my Blackberry!

Mirage

"Sweet :)"

October 20, 2008

As another cat lover, I absolutely love the way you did the cats. My only teenie tiny complaint about them is that I feel like the cats do get a little lost in the background's darkness (though perhaps that's what you were going for). That, and like someone said, the light from the pumpkin is a little intense.

I do love the untraditional pumpkin skin texture, however, and am hoping that you can create a dual screen version in time for that wonderful night itself.

Hope you're recovery is continuing to go well, and thanks for getting us something festive :)

Will Marsh

"i dont know"

October 20, 2008

I really like it, but i feel the cats make it look fake rather surreal. Im not disappointed, but i dont feel like this is your best. maybe im just being picky.

Don

"Wicked Job!"

October 20, 2008

I love Halloween and this brings the spirit to my mac!

Thanks so much!

Don

DoubleLock

"Great job"

October 20, 2008

Love the cats, love the boards and the natural lighting. I just think that the lack of detail inside the pumpkin takes from the picture, then again I'm not so sure people would really enjoy looking at the innards of a pumpkin! Take it easy and have a happy Halloween =D

Jeff

"Meowr"

October 20, 2008

Glad to hear you are on the mend!

As a cat lover how could I not love this picture?? Youve really captured the cats well. My only complaint would be that the light from inside the pumpkin is a little too intense. Keep up the great work.

Julie

"A New Playmate"

October 20, 2008

My second cat Ria is the one sitting on top of the Jack o Lantern! She passed away in 2000, and I still miss her, but what a joy to see her mischievous spirit captured like this! The contrast of the fearless kittens with the glowering visage is classic, and as the commercial says, priceless!

Glad to hear that things went well and you are recovering great. Don't push it, and I look forward to seeing more of your creations once you're back to full speed!

asterismW

"Halloween"

October 20, 2008

Yay! Can't wait for the dual monitor version. Glad to hear you're on the mend!

Nate W

"Nice"

October 20, 2008

I like. Thanks for the holiday theme shot!

Mark

"Cooliris"

October 20, 2008

I second that about Cooliris. Nice image by the way, hope you're getting better. I don't like halloween myself, so I won't be using it, but great concept.

Mike

"Great style"

October 20, 2008

I love the approach you took with this and can't wait for the dual screen version so I can put this one up right away!

Feel better soon!

John

"Halloween wallpaper."

October 19, 2008

Ryan,

Very cool looking wallpaper. It's up on my computer.

JDD

"Prrrrfect"

October 19, 2008

Thanks for another Halloween image. I've been using "Midnight Trooper" as a backdrop lately. Now I'll change to this new playmate. I like the cats and non-traditional pumpkin 'skin'.

Kody

"VERY COOL"

October 19, 2008

totally cool picture for the holiday. im probably goin to carve on just like this for a tribute or something... anyway glad to hear your getting better ryan and i know its a little late but happy birthday (belated)

and if you get a chance you should add your site to the cooliris community, it would make searching through your pictures alot more convienent.

NikB

"Love the cats!"

October 19, 2008

You can't have Halloween without black cats!

Glad to see you're on the mend, Ryan. I hope it's not too long before you're fully recovered.

Justin H.

"happy halloween!!"

October 19, 2008

yay i'm the first one to post! i absolutely love it! very creepy and holloweeny!